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Decolonization, Nation-States, and the Emerging Territoriality: Indigeneity Ln a Contested Zone

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Decolonization, Nation-States, and the Emerging Territoriality: Indigeneity Ln a Contested Zone DECOLONIZATION, NATION-STATES, AND THE EMERGING TERRITORIALITY: INDIGENEITY LN A CONTESTED ZONE by MD. NAZMUL HASAN CHOWDHURY A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (ANTHROPOLOGY) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA November 2005 © Md. Nazmul Hasan Chowdhury, 2005 Abstract The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is home to thirteen different indigenous groups in Bangladesh. An historical examination of the circumstances of indigenous peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts reveals that indigenes had a complicated relationship with the Bangladeshi state over the last few decades, and prior to that with the British and the Pakistani regimes that ruled them. In this paper, I show how the formation of indigeneity in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is shaped by colonialism, decolonization, and the relationship between nation-states and global powers. Thus, in addition to studying the relationship between the state and indigenous people within a single nation-state framework, my focus is on situating it into a regional and global context. It is often argued that in this age of increased connections, nation- states lose control over their localities. This paper, instead, shows that the state still practices authority. The state has become more flexible over the last decade and ultimately signed a treaty with the representatives of Hill inhabitants in 1997. Along with other factors, this process indicates the influences of transnational entities over the state. However, although the treaty guarantees a legal safeguard for indigenous people, their 'real freedom' has been undermined by the state's misinterpretation, or non-implementation of the treaty. This shows that the state can manipulate transnational entities' will and vigilance and reconfigure relationship with the local. This particular tactic of the state creates a procedural problem for indigenous people and draws them into administrative complexities, and often indigenous people do not have enough expertise to overcome this bureaucratic 'red-tape'. It is a puzzle for these people in which they can neither neglect the state and choose a path of renewed resistance, nor get equal rights and enough cooperation from the state. In such a situation, indigenous people are even more vulnerable to an internal conflict than they were during the period of their violent struggle against the state. ii Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iii Acknowledgments iv Introduction 1 Theories of Globalization: An Overview 2 Globalization: A Critical Look at 'Deterritorialization' 3 National vs. Transnational Governmentality: Denial or Negotiation 4 The Context: The Chittagong Hill Tracts 6 Emerging States and Local Conflicts: The CHT in the British Period 8 Economic Appropriation and the Legal Creation of the "Otherness" 8 Decolonization and the Awareness of "Indigeneity" 10 Contested Nationalism and the Politics of Place: The CHT in the Pakistani Period.... 13 The Relationship between Nation-states and Indigeneity 13 The Politics of Nationalism and the Expression of Difference 14 The Global and Regional Dynamics of Indigeneity 15 Territoriality and Indigeneity: The CHT in the Bangladeshi Period 17 The Role of India 19 The Implication of Indian Involvement 21 The Move toward a "Soft" Approach 23 The Peace Treaty 25 CHT and International Law and Conventions: The Politics of Non-Implementation... 27 CHT and Transnational Bodies: The Politics of Manipulation 30 Dominance and Dialogue: The Politics of Reconfiguration 33 Conclusion 40 References Cited 46 iii Acknowledgments I express my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Bruce Granville Miller, for his guidance, extreme patience and support throughout my MA. His thoughtful, critical, yet helpful comments on the draft of the thesis were indeed invaluable. I sincerely thank Dr. Gaston Gordillo for his time, support, and comments on my thesis and other academic matters. I also thank my reader Dr. Janice Boddy for her patient comments and suggestions on my thesis. I wish to thank other faculties in anthropology at UBC for their contribution on improving my knowledge on the subject. I owe a special debt to my friends in Vancouver- A.J.M. Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan and Farhana Begum-for their support during my MA studies at UBC. I thank my fellow graduate students at UBC for their company and cooperation. My greatest debts, however, are to my parents and other family members for their moral support, encouragement, and above all best wishes. Any errors in fact or interpretation are my own iv Introduction In this age of globalization, people are thought to be coming closer and closer, and consequently there is heightened danger due to ethnic conflicts. These conflicts have become the major issue in the study of ethnicity. Indigenous groups are probably the most victimized by such conflicts. Anthropologists have shown their interests in these issues, particularly the relationship between the state and indigenous people (see; Maybury-Lewis 2002; Miller 2003; Dean and Levi 2003; Turner 1996; Nadasdy 2003). However, thus far they have largely approached such issues within a single nation-state framework. I argue for the need to broaden our lenses to look for critical external relations. Recently, the state and other groups have been influenced by their connections with the outer world, and, therefore, a focus only on the local level can obscure such factors that influence a particular institution's behavior. Building on this line of argument, I focus on situating the relationship between the state and indigenous people in a transnational context, in addition to considering the national features. I call this a 'local-global' approach to indigeneity. My perspective, I believe, reveals the limitations of a purely local approach, situates the roots of such conflicts in regional and global politics, and rather than simply showing the relationship between the state and indigenous people, illustrates why certain institutions act in particular ways. In so doing, I build on globalization theories. Some scholars of globalization have argued for its unfettered domination (see; Hannerz 1990; Smith 1990). Others have focused on the connections between the local and the global (see; Appadurai 1990, 2003; Ferguson and Gupta 2002; Tambiah 1996; Comaroff 1996; Malkki 1997). I draw on the latter and use indigenous movements in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh as a case study to show the external connections of such movements. In the next section, I discuss globalization theories in some length. 1 Theories of Globalization: An Overview Appadurai (1990), in an influential and controversial essay, claims that this age of globalization is marked by 'deterritorialization' wherein people are increasingly losing their 'cultural' spatiality, as they are becoming more and more separated from their homelands. He later argued that sovereignty and territoriality in this age 'live increasingly separate lives' (Appadurai 2003: 347). I show that peoples' lives and 'cultures' are still tied to a sense of belonging to a particular territory. I do not claim that deterritorialization does not happen, but rather that Appadurai ignores important aspects of any deterritorialization process. Modern nation- states have imposed strong spatial barriers that restrict the scope or range of deterritorialization. Malkki (1997) and Comaroff (1996) problematize Appadurai's arguments. Malkki shows how dislocated people are reterritorialized in the present world by their claims on and memories of places (emphasis mine). However, I do not fully support Malkki's (1997) view either. Instead, I problematize both deterritorialization and reterritorialization, and invoke Ferguson and Gupta (2002) in my discussion of the state's spatiality and control. In line with Appaduari, Ferguson and Gupta (2002) argue that transnationality weakens the state's ability to control its localities, and states, nowadays, reconfigure their relationship with the transnational entities, such as the World Bank. But such a view is unable to explain the national-transnational muddle. The state may not be free from transnational forces in the current world, but actually can manipulate this connection to its own interest, I argue. I also elaborate on the state's reconfiguration of relationship with opposing entities1. Such reconfiguration results in a shifting trend in the state's behavior over the years (elaborated in the last section of the paper). In the next two sections of the paper, I critically look at the arguments by Appadurai, and Ferguson and Gupta. 2 Globalization: A Critical Look at 'Deterritorialization' Appadurai takes a broad perspective in viewing globalization from economic, cultural and political aspects (Appaduari 1990). He differentiates between five different types of flows: ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, finanscapes, and the ideoscape, and argues that current global flows occur between and through the growing disjunctures between them. Appadurai claims that such a disjuncture between these flows causes 'deterritorialization', which is a major force in the modern world (Appadurai 1990). He argues that the present world can not be understood without considering the shifting relations between "human movement, technological flow, and financial transfers" occurring at an unprecedented rate and constitutive of an essential feature of the world (Appadurai 1990: 298). Mediascape and ideoscape are built on other three
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